Back on Track - the Re-do

Okay, so I started the last blog with an apology for not writing for a couple weeks, and then saying how I’m back to it and will be more consistent with getting the entries out weekly.  I even titled the entry “Back On Track”.   Then I didn’t write an entry the following week.  Which I guess just completely makes me a liar.  Oops.  But, maybe I can use the old ‘better late than never’ excuse here, right?   I will say this: several of you out there have done a great job of emailing and asking when the next issue is coming out, giving me the kick in the butt I need to keep writing.  So, I’m sitting on a Friday afternoon in Minnesota catching up, again.  But I have several things on my list to talk about this week, so hopefully this will be an entertaining read for you. 

First, the important stuff: do you remember a couple months ago I wrote about trying a Big Mac for the first time?  Well, I had another ‘fast food first’ – the Triple F if you will.  A couple weeks ago I finally tried the Doritos Locos Taco.  Like I said, the important stuff.  I know, again I’m so far behind the times here.  Taco Bell has already come out with the Cool Ranch version, and I think another version as well, and I hadn’t even tried the original.  I must say I do like Doritos an awful lot, or at least I did as a kid.  So I should have tried this taco concoction when it came out, but I have waited until now; mostly because I just don’t like Taco Bell that much and have only eaten there once or twice in the past several years.  But I finally gave in and tried it.  So, the verdict: much like the Big Mac, not worth all the hype.  I don’t know, maybe I’m a food snob or something.  I just didn’t think there was much flavor.  And the shell was flaky and broke way too easily.  I guess this is what my life on the road has been reduced to – trying new fast food creations and rating them.  Ha.  On a related note, the Tuscan Chicken sandwich at Wendy’s isn’t too bad.  Okay okay, I know.  Enough about ridiculous adventures with fast food and on to the stuff you’d rather hear about. 

Oh, here’s something that drives me crazy: Housekeepers that knock on the door when you have the ‘do not disturb’ sign out.  We spend so much time in hotels, and we get in late at night, meaning that we sleep late in the morning and usually stay until check out time.  Sleep is a precious commodity for us.  Please don’t wake me up early by knocking on the door when the ‘do not disturb’ sign is up.  Sometimes I wonder if they do it just to mess with me.  And it always seems to be for the silliest things too.  Here are the two most popular reasons for the disturbance: 1. Do you guys need anything?  2. Are you going to be checking out today?  Alright, let’s address these one at a time. 

The first question - do we need anything.  What I’m thinking: yes, I need sleep! What I should say: No, I don’t need any more towels, I don’t need the bed made or the room cleaned, I don’t need any more shampoo or toilet paper, I actually don’t need anything, which is why the ‘do not disturb’ sign is there; because we’re fine and don’t need your assistance in any way; feel free to move on to the next room.  What I actually say: No, we’re fine, thank you. 

The second question – are we checking out today.  What I’m thinking: actually, I should not write down what I’m actually thinking at that point.  Way too many four letter words come to mind.  What I should say: yes, we only booked this room for one night because we actually only need it for one night, and I promise we will be out of the room by the designated check out time.  If you just have a little patience we'll be out of your way shortly.  What I actually say: yes, we’ll be out in just a little while, thank you for asking. 

I seem to be ranting more and more.  I should work on that.  Well, enough of my dislike for housekeepers that disturb you when you ask them not to.  I just had to get that off my chest.  I feel much better now. 

The other day I made the “Hey I haven’t talked to you in forever but it’s your birthday so I should call you” call to one of my favorite old-school friends.  As we were catching up we started talking about how difficult and inconvenient it is to make new friends when you relocate to a new place (he now lives in Phoenix, and I don’t live in our hometown anymore either).  We were joking that to truly become ‘good friends’ with someone new, you and the new person would have party your asses off, do a bunch of stupid and immature stuff, and get in trouble together; and that we’re just too old for all that now.  So instead of going through all that stuff, we’d just keep the old friends and reminisce about the past.  I hung up after the conversation thinking about all the ‘stories’ my friends and I have – basically started thinking about the good old days.  I’m sure you can all relate to this.  (‘Oh remember back in the day when we were all hanging out drinking and…).  Fill in the blanks from there.  Anyway, I was thinking about all those tales from the past and thought that it would make a great song (and probably even better book); so all these lyrics and ideas about a song started flowing.  Here’s the problem: I’m in the van traveling down the road, it’s dark, and I don’t have access to my guitar.  I don’t need a guitar to write a song, but I at least like to know in what key I’m hearing this stuff in my head.  Anyway, guitar problem aside, I’m still in a moving vehicle in the dark.  But I have to get these ideas down on paper or they’re lost forever, so I find my notebook and get out my pen, and (using my phone as a flashlight – another one of the brilliant ‘non-phone’ uses of a smart phone) started jotting down idea after idea.  After quickly filling up a couple pages with ideas I started sifting through them and arranging some of them in orders that I thought might make sense for a song, then compiling a chorus, etc.  Okay, now I’m just rambling.  Let me get to the point.  The point is this: you never know when an idea for a song will hit you, or what will even spark an idea.  I was just talking to and old friend, and bam, suddenly I have all these ideas I think would work in a song.  Unfortunately, sometimes when these ‘brilliant’ song ideas come, you’re stuck in a van traveling down Interstate 90 in the dark.  I don’t know if the song will end up being any good, or end up ever being finished at all, but it was nice for that brief moment to feel creative again and have ideas for new material. 

So, here was something completely random and unexpected that happened the other day:  We walked into an Oasis for a bathroom break (for those of you who don’t know what this is, it is like a super rest area that goes over the interstate so it is accessible from both sides of the highway.  It has restrooms, plus a food court with several restaurants to choose from).  So we got out of the van and all walk inside to hit the bathroom; but as we came through the door right at the first and most visible table was a woman breastfeeding her baby.  Boob right out there for all who happened to pass by; no blanket, no cover at all - with the rest of her family sitting right there eating their Chicken McNuggets.  I get it, the baby has to eat, and it was a rest area where food is available.  And I’m completely comfortable with it and am of the opinion that a woman is free to feed her baby wherever and whenever she chooses.  I think maybe just a little discretion would have been nice though; maybe sit at a table over in the corner, that’s not so visible to every person that walks through the door.  Just my opinion I guess.  I’m glad she was comfortable, and that the child got fed.  Like I said, it was just completely random and entirely unexpected.

I thought it would be nice to show you all a couple pictures I took recently (again, another brilliant ‘non-phone’ use of my smart phone), ones that I thought were either interesting, funny, or just good pictures.  I’ll just do a few here. 

- My buddy Brandon and I at a show in Minnesota.  We love when he comes out to see our shows.  He enjoys the music so much!  And he’s just such a funny dude. 

 

This is a shot of the ceiling at a motel we stayed at recently.  Yes, those are buckets hanging up there to catch the water.  They were actually all over the room in different areas.  Really???

 

Okay, this sign was hanging in the men’s bathroom of a fast food restaurant.  I won’t say which one, or even which city or state where I saw this.  It was just hilarious and I had to share it.  And you know a sign like this wouldn’t be posted if someone hadn’t already done those things.  Wow. 

Well, yesterday was the five year anniversary of when this band became a ‘nationally touring band’; when we hit the road. We went from just playing around Kentucky every weekend to playing around the country pretty much every night.  So I think to celebrate, the next ‘journal entry’ will be looking back over the past five years; band members, places, funny stories, etc.  So stay tuned for that one.  I will try my best to have it out early next week for you all.  

I thought it would be cool to start ending these entries with a song quote.  Something either that I heard that moved me or inspired me, or just something that I thought was clever, or enjoyed.  Maybe something from my collection, or from other people’s work.  And if you have song quotes that have touched you in some way, feel free to share them here as well; EMAIL me and let me know what song quotes you like and I’ll post some of them on here along with mine.  So I will finish up with my obligatory self-promotion, then end this entry with my favorite song quote of all time.  See if you can identify the artist or song. 

Okay, make sure you check out our website www.themichaeldband.com for our tour schedule, to hear clips of our songs, see our old videos, and all sorts of other fun things.  If you haven’t already, go ‘Like’ our FACEBOOK Fan Page, and be sure to ‘Follow’ us on TWITTER as well.  And if for some crazy reason you don’t already have our latest album “Back In Town” stop right now and go to I-TUNES and get it.  If there are any topics you’d like me to discuss, EMAIL me and let me know.  Lastly, if you're not already receiving email notification for when i post new entries, scroll back up to the top of the page and sign up so you'll know each time a new one is finished. 

 As always, be safe out there.  We hope to see you at a show soon. 

Lastly, here is my favorite song quote of all time:

“She’s talking in her sleep, it’s keeping me awake, and Anna begins to toss and turn.  And every word is nonsense but I understand it all”

Back On Track

Okay, yes, I know I haven’t written in a couple weeks.  Have you missed my weekly rambling about our life on the road?  Probably not, but for my sake let’s just assume you’ve been anxiously awaiting another ‘journal entry’.  So, where have I been?  Why haven’t I written in the past couple weeks?  Simple answer: laziness.  Actually, I’m kidding, it is completely the opposite.  I have been so overwhelmed with work the past few weeks that the journal has had to take a back seat to all the other things that were a higher priority.  As I write that I am thinking to myself, ‘if I was reading this from an outside perspective I would almost laugh at that statement; a musician being overwhelmed with work? Ha.  Don’t they just get up on stage and perform?’ But those of you that really know me know that I probably put in twice as many hours off stage as I do on stage, including set up and tear down.  That’s just part of the deal when we’re trying to succeed and move up the ladder.  So yes, I have definitely slacked on the journals lately while focusing on all the other ‘off stage’ stuff that needed to be done.  And actually, lately we’ve been working on some things that could turn into really big steps forward for this band; hopefully I’ll be able to elaborate on that in the next few weeks!  All that being said, I’m back writing today and all the other items on the to-do list can wait. 

So, where did I leave off last time?  Oh yeah, we were in Chadron, NE after the semi flipped over on Interstate 80.  Okay, let me think back over the past few weeks and try to remember a few of the notable things that happened.  We were in Chadron on Wed. and Thurs. of that week, and actually had pretty decent crowds for week nights.  It is a college town, and historically we’ve not done well selling our merch or our albums there, but for some reason several people wanted copies of our latest record “Back In Town”, which was a nice change for us there.  From there we had to get up super early (again, super early for us is like 8 am) for a nice seven hour drive to Craig, CO.  Craig is a pretty cool small town out in the middle of nowhere Colorado.  And the people there are pretty down to earth; especially the staff there – very cool group of employees that treat us really well.  I would definitely say I feel appreciated when we go to JW Snack’s in Craig for shows.  Anyway, so we got to the club that Friday afternoon and started to set up. A little about this bar: they have a really cool fenced in courtyard with a little stage, but no stage inside, and it was just a little cool still to be playing outdoors at night.  So the owner had built a riser for us as kind of a makeshift stage for the weekend – which was very thoughtful on his part.  But for our gear and where we were setting up, the riser just wasn’t going to work for us, so we decided we’d just set up on the floor and play.  This ended up being a big mistake on my part.  I don’t mind setting up on the floor from time to time; as long as we’re getting to play music and there are people there that like what we’re doing, who cares if we’re on a stage or not.  But when we do set up on the floor, there is no barrier between the musician and the crowd; there’s no imaginary line that says ‘please do not cross into my space’.  I know that sounds like I’m saying I don’t want anyone close to me, blah blah blah.  That’s not it at all.  When there’s no line, the people on the dance floor can get as close as they want, and when they are dancing that close to us, they don’t realize that if they bump into my microphone while I’m singing, it hits me in the mouth.  (I can’t remember if I’ve written about this before or not, so I’ll just go on like you’ve never heard me rant about this).  Every little bump on my microphone stand from your side feels like I’m being punched in the face on my side.  When my mouth is right up on the microphone and the stand suddenly moves forward from being bumped: ouch!  Have you ever been punched in the mouth?  It freakin’ hurts.  This isn’t really a new problem for me, I’ve been dealing with it for years; every time we set up on the floor and there’s a crowded dance floor; but this time may have been the worst for me.  During the first half of our show I got hit in the face by my mic stand at least 14 times.  And this one woman was spinning around right in front of me with a purse on her shoulder: are you kidding me?  Please just put the projectile purse down when dancing.  Come on!!!  It got to the point where I couldn’t continue if we didn’t come up with some kind of barrier.  We finally found some cones to set in front of us, which ended up helping a little.   So that was my Saturday night in Colorado.  It was like I went all 12 rounds with Mike Tyson.  Yes, I know Mike Tyson is an old boxing reference.  But I don’t know who the current popular boxers are, so he’s the first one I thought of for the reference.  And come on, I come from the Nintendo era of ‘Mike Tyson’s Punch Out’.  (which by the way was an awesome game for its time; not as good as Contra though – best game ever! Ha.  I actually still remember the cheat codes to get 30 lives in that game.  Does anyone else remember the code off the top of their head?  If so, EMAIL me and let me know.  Or just post a comment at the bottom of this blog).  Wait, does anyone still have a Nintendo and the game Contra?  I don’t really ever play video games, but it would be awesome to play that one again sometime.  Okay, I just got way off the subject with that.  Wow.  Get back on track Michael. 

When we left Colorado we still had one week out on the road.  We had 5 shows that last week, and I’m sure some interesting things happened at those shows or off stage sometime, but if I’m being really honest with you, for some reason this past tour was a really long one for all of us, and we were just tired and ready to go home and get a few days off the road.  So looking back on that week for me is all really just a blur.  If someone remembers any funny stories from that week that I’m forgetting, let me know about them and I’ll write about it for everyone else.  Oh, I do remember one thing that stands out: We were back in Williston that Thursday night for a one night only show (usually we’re there for 3 nights in a row, so this was different for them), and we had the largest Thurs. night crowd we’ve ever had there; probably better than some weekend nights we’ve had there in the past.  And they were throwing down too.  It was crazy, and totally unexpected, but very cool for us.  Oh yeah, just remembered another thing from there: I almost got in a fight with an old man that day during our load in.  I probably shouldn’t tell that story though: I was in the wrong and I would come out looking like an asshole.  He just pissed me off though.  So if by some crazy chance that old-timer, or someone that knows him, is reading this – I apologize.  You caught me at the wrong time.  I should have been more cool about the situation. 

Actually, I do know why we were so wore out and ready to be home: we started the tour with van issues and missing shows, then crisscrossed the country a couple times while we were out.  It was exhausting. 

Alright, enough about that last week.  We finished up the weekend, and were so anxious to get home we left right after the show on Saturday night and drove through the night and all the next day and evening to get back home.  But finally, we were in our own beds again for a few days. 

Oh yeah, I do remember one other thing about that week that was pretty cool, a comment made: a guy at one of the shows was asking about our new album, so I got one for him and brought it over, at which point he said, “no I already have this one, and your first one too.  I’m ready for another new album.  I have both of your cd’s in my truck.  I love your guys’ music”.  That was really cool for me; that although we just came out with this latest album in January, this guy has liked our material so much that he is ready for even more.  I wish I had more music to give him right now.  Spoiler alert: we’re already talking about it and working on some new material. 

Quick side note: I just found out that we’re heading back to Vegas in October.  YEAH!

Moving on.  I was home for a grand total of 3 days before it was time to head back out.  This time it was down to Lexington, KY, which is our home base.   It is our home base because ¾ of us live there.  Unfortunately for me, I’m the one that doesn’t live there.  I only say unfortunately in reference to us having shows there that weekend; the rest of the guys got to play gigs at home and I was back driving down the interstate and sleeping in hotel rooms for the weekend.  Oh how nice it would be to get a show or two booked in my town and be able to sleep in my bed after the show… ah, a boy can dream, right.  Anyway, I’m sure it’s very nice for the guys to be playing close to home.  And it is great for us because, like I said, it is our home base.  The only bad thing is that we hadn’t played in Lexington in literally a year.  I worry about this sometimes: for it being our home base, do we not get back there enough?  We spend so much time thinking about expanding fan base and stuff like that, but are we forgetting all about those early fans in the process?  To answer my own question, in a sense we are.  We have been touring nationally for 5 years now, and in those five years have only been back to play in Lexington (or nearby) a handful of times.  Why should I expect all those people that ‘used’ to like our band to still remember us after all that time?  Truthfully, I shouldn’t expect that.  We left.  We’re never there.  The fault is ours.  And I know why we did it too: the money was better out on the road.  The allure of playing all over the country and really expanding our fan base was enticing.  And we have done that.  But we forgot about the one thing we want to accomplish the most, keep our fans for life.  Here’s where you insert the whole lesson about hindsight being 20/20 and all that.  But yeah, looking back, we should have gone back to our home base more often over the years.  I can say right now that I regret that decision.   I should never expect all those people in central Kentucky to still follow us after we’ve pretty much abandoned them for the past half decade.  But I did learn one thing this past weekend: we still have some people from the old days that remember me and come support the band and our music.  That was really special for me to see those people that came out for our shows. 

I think that pretty much catches us up on the past few weeks.  After the shows in Lexington we had a few more days off, and then headed down to Mississippi, which is where I’m writing this from.  That made for a long trip down here (but hey, we’re used to that).  I woke up early Thursday morning, met the band back in Lexington, and we got down to MS very late Thursday night.  That was a 6 state day for me: left IN, drove through OH, met the band in KY, drove through TN and AL and made it to MS.  We timed it just right to hit the rush hour traffic in Nashville too, which is never a good time.  I don’t know why, but rush hour traffic in Nashville is horrible.  I had almost forgotten how much I used to hate the traffic when I lived down there all those years ago.  Being stuck in Nashville traffic did give me the idea and opportunity to call Brent though (for those who don’t know who Brent is, he was our drummer before Steve joined the band – Brent was with us for a little over 3 years).  It was great to get to catch up with him for a few minutes.  I hadn’t actually talked to him on the phone for several months.  It’s funny how quickly time goes by for us like that; I didn’t realize until I was on the phone with him that it had been that long since we’d talked.  It’s also funny to me that even when you don’t talk to someone for a long time like that, how quickly we can slip back into the old routine of conversation like you just spoke to each other last night.  For the curious ones out there, Brent seemed to still be doing really well.  He’s playing a lot of gigs around town, and even venturing out of town a bit here and there with a couple bands.  Anyway, it was nice to catch up with an old friend, even if it was just for a few minutes while we were stuck in traffic.  I’ll have to make more effort to stay in touch with him.  Actually, I really do need to make more effort to stay in touch with my close friends in general.  I never take time out and call my old buddies up anymore.  Just like with Brent, it has been way too long since I’ve talked to most of them.  I should make a list of the friends I need to catch up with (yeah Mike, make another list…).  Who am I kidding, I’m not going to follow through with that.  I’d just get busy and side tracked and forget about it again anyway.  It would be nice to hear from some old friends though. 

Oh, I almost forgot, we did get to see a ‘chick fight’ a couple weeks ago.  Wait, that’s not very PC of me, sorry: two females fighting.  Actually it wasn’t much of a fight.  I’ve seen worse (or better, depending on if you like fights or not).  Let’s see if I can state this without making it too confusing: Girl A was hammered drunk and out on the dance floor; Girl B was dancing with her boyfriend; Girl A basically tried to cut in and dance with Girl B’s boyfriend; Girl B didn’t like it; commence to fighting. 

Well, I think it is time for me to wrap this entry up and head down to the fitness center here at the hotel.  Again, I apologize for taking a few weeks off from the writing.  Hopefully this post will keep me motivated and get me back on track with it.  As always, if you have things that you’d like to hear about and want me to write about, EMAIL me and let me know.  I’m always searching for more topics to discuss.  Of course, if you aren’t already, go ‘Like’ our FACEBOOK page, and be sure to ‘Follow’ us on TWITTER.  And if by some crazy chance you don’t have our latest album “Back In Town”, stop what you’re doing right now and go to I-TUNES and get our music. 

Be safe out there.  Hopefully we’ll see you all at a show soon!

Down To Albuquerque

It happened again: another wreck on the highway that we were the first to come upon.  I will get to that story in just a bit though.  I think I’ll start this ‘journal entry’ like last weeks, just going through each day and discussing the interesting things that happened.  Then maybe branch out from there about other things. 

We had a few days off before we had to be in Albuquerque, which was good because we were pretty far away, and it was going to take a while to get there.  We had to be down there by Thursday afternoon to set up for Thursday night’s show, so we left early Wednesday morning, planning on driving all day Wednesday and part of the day on Thursday to get from Bismarck, ND to Albuquerque, NM. 

So, at 8am Wednesday morning, we piled in the van and headed south.  I mention the 8am only to illustrate that we knew it was going to be a long drive – that might not be early for most people, but to us that’s ridiculously early.  From ND we drove south into South Dakota, south further into Nebraska, then west into Colorado, and south some more into New Mexico.  We’ve had longer drives before, but for some reason this one was just about the worst for me.  I was bored before we even reached the South Dakota border, and it just got worse from there.  I don’t know why; usually I’m cool with sitting in the van all day reading, but for some reason on this trip I got extremely antsy.  We couldn’t get there fast enough for me.  We would stop for a meal or fuel, and I was jumping out of the van before it came to a stop.  Well, enough about my inability to sit still.  I assumed that the GPS would take us to Denver and then south on I-25 all the way into New Mexico, but it diverted us to some state highway most of the way through Colorado.  While I appreciate cutting off any distance and getting us to our destination as quickly as possible, this particular back road at night might not have been the best option.  For one thing, the wind was blowing pretty hard, and at times it looked like tumbleweeds were racing each other down the road; which was actually kind of funny for a while.  But then (of course) the wind picked up the dirt to the point where we could barely see the road; not only was it dark out, but we were driving through a dirt storm, on a two lane state highway out in the middle of nowhere.  Could it get worse?  Wait, don’t answer that; I don’t want to think about it getting worse.  

So anyway, the GPS finally spit us out onto I-25 down near the southern border of Colorado.  We crossed into New Mexico and finally stopped for the night in Las Vegas (the little town in northern NM, not the one with all the casinos in Nevada).  To recap day one of our driving: we drove 18 hours from North Dakota to New Mexico.  Oh yeah, and Kevin drove the entire time.  I had never seen anything like it before.  His stamina with driving long distances is incredible, but 18 hours was just wild.  He didn’t even seem that tired either.  He will always let us know when he is wearing down and will let someone else drive, but he just never got tired on that drive.  It was incredible. 

Since we drove so far and for so long on the first day, we were only 2 hours from Albuquerque.  Being so close turned out to be extremely nice for us; we got to sleep in and only had to be in the van a few hours. 

Wow, that was kind of a long description for just riding in a van all day.  Let me speed things up a bit here: we got to Albuquerque Thursday afternoon and went straight to the club to set up for that night’s show.  Thursday night was insane.  I wasn’t really expecting a large crowd, and was blown away by how many people were in the club seeing us play that night.  I posted a picture on FACEBOOK and TWITTER showing the crowd.  I have never tried posting a photo on this blog.  Let me see if I can do that here right now: 

(Wow, I think that actually worked.  That's the first time I've posted a picture on here.  I'm going to have to do a few more throughout this post).  

It was ladies night, which apparently is a big deal in Albuquerque, because the place was slammed all night long.   It was a great surprise for us, and quite the welcome back to the Dirty Bourbon Saloon.  It felt great to be on stage with so many people in the crowd. 

Friday night we were scheduled to share the stage with Bri Bagwell, so after Thursday night’s show we had to clear the stage to make room for their set up.  After they came in and set up all their gear, we came back in on Friday afternoon and set up all our stuff for our show that evening.  I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but I really enjoy doing shows with other bands.  If I could have it my way, we’d do this every night.  For one thing, it gives the crowd a variety, which I’m sure they like.  But it also gives us an opportunity to check out other musicians and hear their music, as well as a chance to network while out on the road.  Plus, it means we have a shorter show and thus are able to showcase more of our original music, which of course I love!  It was nice getting to watch her show after we were finished performing for the night.  Good dirt road band; and cool guys too.  We really enjoy just getting to hang out with other musicians from time to time. 

Saturday we were back on our own, so yet again we had to come back in and set our stuff up.  We had another great crowd Saturday night as well.  It ended up being three great nights for us.  I love playing large clubs like that, especially in parts of the country that we don’t have the opportunity to get to very often (it had been over a year since we had played there – far too long for us): the exposure for us to new potential fans in a new market is great – there are so many new people that we can turn on to our music.  The problem for us is that we don’t really have the chance to interact with them like we do at some smaller venues.  But that’s the trade-off: more people in the crowd – less interaction.  For venues like that we really at least need a merch person, so that if people in the crowd like our music and want to buy an album, they would have access to that while we were on stage.  Actually, it would be really nice to have someone selling our merchandise at every show.  Hopefully someday soon.  When that day comes, I’ll title that week’s journal entry “Finally got a Merch Guy!”  You won’t even have to read the post; the entire entry will be about how excited I am to have the extra help at our shows. 

Anyway, our three nights at the Dirty Bourbon in Albuquerque were great.  We all agree that we hope to get back there more and more and start building a fan base down in that area.  Oh, I almost forgot: for all you ‘Breaking Bad’ fans out there – Steve and Josh found the house where Heisenberg lived. 

We left Albuquerque on Sunday and headed back north through Colorado and ended up staying Sunday night in Cheyenne, WY.  When we were about an hour away from Wyoming, we heard that the Interstate between Laramie and Cheyenne was closed due to bad weather.  Apparently a snow storm had gone through.  (My thought – it is late April; of course a damn snow storm is going through where we are trying to go).  But we made it without coming upon any bad weather and found a hotel for the night. 

Okay, now to the wreck on the highway.  This is a good one.  We left Cheyenne early Monday morning to get into Nebraska, where we’re playing Wednesday and Thursday of this week.  We were driving along I-80 (just outside of Sidney, NE) when a semi-truck passed us, and Kevin made the comment “that truck is going to tip over”; to which I thought (but didn’t say) ‘yeah right, that’s just stupid’.  Less than 2 minutes later Kevin shouts “holy shit” – we all look out the front window to see that exact semi rolling on its side.  The wind was blowing across the interstate so hard that it literally blew the semi over.  As crazy as it was, at least no other cars were beside it or right behind it, and it was just the semi involved in the crash.  Of course we were the closest vehicle behind the semi, so we pulled over and Josh, Kevin and I jumped out and ran up to the wreck to see if we could help the driver.  A few other people joined us to help the driver as well.  He was okay, not really injured at all, which was great; we just needed to find a way to get him out of the cab of the truck.  We ended up busting the front windshield out and he climbed out of that on his own.  If I were the truck driver, I would have been in shock after just being blown over on my side in a semi, but he actually seemed to be very coherent and in control.  He even went back into the cab to see if he could find his lighter.  At that point we thought he seemed to be okay.  The police had been contacted and he wasn’t hurt, so soon after that we got back in the van and continued on down the road heading to our destination. 

Here are a few more pictures:

So, that was basically our week.  This week we are in Chadron, NE on Wednesday and Thursday, and then off to Craig, CO for the weekend.  We haven’t been to Craig, CO since playing a festival out there last summer, so we are all excited and looking forward to heading back there this weekend.  Now on to a few random things that I find interesting or important to share:

1.       1. We posted a new video this week for our song “Back In Town”.  Josh has been compiling video footage the past several months, and he and I worked together to sort through it all and put together some of the footage for the video.  I really enjoy making videos like this one; looking through all the footage, finding useable stuff, putting it all together in clips, setting it to the music.  We also enjoy making fun of ourselves a little bit in the videos.  If you’ve seen this one (or several of the past ones too), you know what I mean.  It’s just a little bit of our personality coming through.  We also realize that they aren’t the most professional or most polished videos, but I think they’re something fun for our fans out there to see, so they get an idea of what we’ve been up to out on the road. Here is the video for those of you who haven't seen it:

2.       2. To get the video out there for as many people to see as possible, we created an ‘event’ on FACEBOOK that was basically: hey we have a new video; here is the link; go check it out.  The frustrating thing about doing it this way is that to invite everyone, you have to manually go in and click on each person; that is a couple thousand people’s profile to click on – it takes a couple of hours to do.  It is just mind numbing to sit there through the entire process.  You know, if I had a Merch Guy I’d have him do it for me!  But for us, that is a great way to get people on FACEBOOK to see our new video, so I take the time to do it.   Here is what I don’t understand though: when we create an ‘event’ and invite all those people, we are basically just asking them to click on the link to check out the new video.  There is no physical thing to go to, just click the link and watch the video.  I appreciate when people will also click that they are ‘going’ to the event, hopefully meaning that they are all watching the video.  But what puzzles me is when, for something like this, people will click ‘maybe’.  Are they maybe going to watch the video?  And if they’re not going to watch it, why take the time to click ‘maybe’?  Maybe they’re just being comedic, who knows.  I actually do chuckle when I see that people are ‘maybe’ going to one of our events like this.   Either way, I hope they all do eventually watch the video; we make it for our fans, so hopefully they’re watching it and enjoying.  Speaking of, I do appreciate all the comments left by people saying that they do enjoy the video we made.  It helps us to know that what we’re doing is entertaining to people out there; so if you saw it and liked what you saw, let us know.

 

3.       3. I wanted to share a comment that someone left on a recent blog post that really meant a lot to me.  The comment was: “so far I really love the song Friends Like These. its a very candid open piece that is written and performed in the same voice as these entries. very honest.”  If you know me, you know how much I enjoy reading a comment like this.  I work really hard to lay it all out there and be completely open with my art, whether it be in song or even just these writings.  I have written before about how that song was the most open and honest I have ever been in my song writing before, and how it is probably my favorite piece of work to date.  It is so fulfilling to receive a comment like that; knowing that someone gets and appreciates what I am trying to do.  It makes it worth it to know that there are people out there enjoying the work I’m doing. 

Well, I have rambled on enough for this week.  Like I always do at the end of each post, I’d like to take a moment to promote our band and music.  Check out our website at www.themichaeldband.com.  We have several new dates posted, and even more coming soon.  If you don’t have our latest album “Back In Town” yet, go to I-TUNES right now and download all the songs.  Then EMAIL me and tell me what you think.  Lastly, if you haven’t already, go ‘like’ us on FACEBOOK and ‘follow’ us on TWITTER. 

Be safe out there.